Passive Solar Design in 1985

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The Genesis Solar Subdivision is a planned community of passive solar homes.
The Genesis Solar Subdivision is a planned community of passive solar homes.
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Top: The interior of the sunspace. Middle: The veneer brickwork keeps thermal mass to a minimum. Bottom: A Vermont Castings Vigilant provides backup heat.
Top: The interior of the sunspace. Middle: The veneer brickwork keeps thermal mass to a minimum. Bottom: A Vermont Castings Vigilant provides backup heat.
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The Pipics' home is one of the newer entries in Genesis and incorporates a sunspace that can, in thermal effect, be detached from the living are.
The Pipics' home is one of the newer entries in Genesis and incorporates a sunspace that can, in thermal effect, be detached from the living are.

Ten years ago, a builder could simply cover the south wall of a house with glass and call it a solar home. The public was hungry for relief from the energy crunch, and passive solar housing was as much a symbol of a solution as it was a fix in itself. Indeed, passive houses did (and still do) demand much less space-heating energy than the norm, but such dwellings have also had a few teething problems over the years. Thankfully, today’s passive solar designs are able, in many instances, to overcome those difficulties — largely because of the experience gained by the pioneers of the seventies.

To name just a few of the discoveries made in the last decade in passive solar design, thermal mass has now become an accepted feature in most designs (not just in homes built from adobe, as used to be the case); superinsulation has gradually been mixed with solar features; and designers have recognized that varying the amount of insulation isn’t the only response needed in order to adapt to different climates. As a result of these and other lessons, many of the new breed of solar homes don’t look as ostentatiously glass-covered as their ancestors, but they perform well and are far more comfortable to live in.

Tom and Crystal Pipic’s house, in the Genesis Solar Subdivision near Columbus, Ohio, is a fine example of this refinement in thought on passive solar design. It demonstrates the principles that architect Joseph Kawecki has arrived at after years of doing solar design to suit the exceedingly complex climate of the Midwest. 

Passive Solar Design for a Variable Climate

  • Published on Mar 1, 1985
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